


The things we do to survive

by CamilleDuDemon



Category: Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Canon Compliant, Canon-Typical Violence, Force Choking, Gen, Hurt No Comfort, LITERALLY, M/M, Major Spoilers for Episode VIII, Mutual hate, They're both assholes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-25
Updated: 2017-12-25
Packaged: 2019-02-20 14:17:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,234
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13148409
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CamilleDuDemon/pseuds/CamilleDuDemon
Summary: Traitor is a word that General Hux had wished many times not to say again out loud, at least not referring to Kylo Ren.But Ren is undoubtedly a traitor, and he must cope with that too.The knight talks, moving feverishly and Hux isn’t paying proper attention until he speaks like he’s in charge, but no one has ever said that he was, and the general feels his blood boil, almost hurting into his veins like a toxin released from Ren’s tongue.A General must adapt, but that doesn’t mean that he can't say what he needs to say since a possibly deadly damage has been done to the Order he serves.A General must adapt, but more importantly, a General has to protect the cause he’s serving. This is the ultimate way of survival.





	The things we do to survive

“The girl killed Snoke.”

Hux looks at the mess that's now the former throne room, turned into a pile of debris, ashes and corpses.

The smell of burning flesh - human flesh, presumably, and the subtle smell of Supreme Leader Snoke’s impossibly old, decaying dismembered body - makes his nostrils tingle unpleasantly, although he’s so good at concealing his repulsion.

A part of him knows,  _ knows _ that there's no way the scavenger girl - or whatever she is now that the Resistance has made a bulwark of hope out of her, he couldn't care less - could have done this all alone.

Burning down some furniture is a thing... _ killing an entire squadron of highly trained pretorian guards and a supposedly more expert force user is another. _

_ Killing the Supreme Leader of the First Order is nearly inconceavable. _

The General takes a deep breath and the foul smell makes its way down his throat right to the very core of his stomach, and he has to hide his disgust behind the subtlest twitch of his upper lip.

Ren looks at him with his large, sad eyes, looking just like a boy who was forced to think “what's going to happen to me, now?” one too many times for such a short amount of time, and Hux has to pinch the bridge of his nose to try and think straight about what has just happened.

_ The scavenger girl couldn't have done this all alone _ , he thinks, this time more certainly, and the thought dissipates as quickly as it came in a bubble of soap and dizziness.

Nevertheless, the realization feels painfully real to him, a betrayal that like a raging fire consumes his bones from their insides, turning his body to ashes.

_ It was Ren. Ren did this. _

Again, Hux feels on the verge of throwing his whole guts up on the polished durasteel floor.

_ There are announcements to make, meetings and reassurances. “Our Supreme Leader is dead, but we’re still alive. We aren't gonna die until the last one of us falls”, now those are the right things to say. Mere catchphrases, while the Order collapses on itself and the galaxy ends up again under the lying leash of the Republic. _

It's Hux’s turn, this time, to think “what’s going to happen to me, now?” and this is the first time ever he finds himself into such a nasty, unpleasant position.

The stench of death makes him feel disturbingly lost. Where there was once order, now there's just chaos and some kind of overpowered brat who thought he had no better things to do other than kill his master and leave the First Order without a proper leadership.

A competent leadership, at least.

Hux wonders if he can cope with that and the answer is yes, sure he can, as much as he feels exhausted and drained and deprived from any of his basic human needs - he doesn’t sleep and he barely eats a nutrient bar whenever someone dares to remind him that he needs to eat once in a while, if he doesn't want to starve himself to death.

A General must adapt, he had learned. A General must adapt because it's the only way to survive.

Ren gets in his feet quickly, his broad body seemingly unmarred by the recent events. Hux feels the gentle weight of the blaster safely tucked in the hidden pocket of his greatcoat and thinks that he could have shot him, yes, he would have shot him right there, without feeling an ounce of remorse.

_ No remorse is admissible for the murder of a traitor. _

Traitor is a word that General Hux had wished many times not to say again out loud, at least not referring to Kylo Ren.

_ But Ren is undoubtedly a traitor, and he must cope with that too. _

The knight talks, moving feverishly and Hux isn’t paying proper attention until he speaks like he’s in charge, but no one has ever said that he was, and the general feels his blood boil, almost hurting into his veins like a toxin released from Ren’s tongue.

_ A General must adapt, but that doesn’t mean that he can't say what he needs to say since a possibly deadly damage has been done to the Order he serves. _

_ A General must adapt, but more importantly, a General has to protect the cause he’s serving. This is the ultimate way of survival. _

“Finish this?”, he yells when he has finally regained control over his brain. “Who do you think you’re talking to? You  _ presumed  _ to rule my army! Our Supreme Leader is dead!”, he lets out, and the thought alone is enough to make furious chills run down his spine. “We have no ruler!”

Suddenly, he feels his throat close into a fatal grip.

Before he can properly process what’s happening, assuming he would in the near future, he’s already grasping at his own neck, feeling his soft skin peel against the surface of his leather gloves.

_ A General must survive. _

“The Supreme Leader is dead”, Kylo Ren hisses, and Hux feels some blood vessels pop into his reddened eyes.

_ A General must adapt. _

“Long live the Supreme Leader”, he hardly breathes out, words choking into his own force-shut windpipe.

_ A traitor and a monster is not a leader, but again, a General must adapt. _

Kylo Ren seems satisfied with his survival mode induced acceptance, because he finally frees him from his invisible fingers and storms away.

Hux lets out a long, wheezing noise, and feels his head pound with the probably worst headache of his entire life.

His heart throbs in his chest, pounds and kicks against the ribcage, and he’s not sure he’s actually alive anymore or just a projection of what he was only a handful of hours ago, when Supreme Leader Snoke was alive and he could be sure that the Order had more than just a tiny chance of wiping away the Resistance once and for all.

In his buzzing ears he can hear the loathed sound of his father’s voice, patronizing and slightly disappointed, repeating his motto again and again:  _ a General must adapt because it’s the only way to survive. _

He listens, as he has always done, he listens until he can’t recall how much time has passed since he walked into the throne room, since he has stepped past that damned threshold and was forced to bend his knee to a Supreme Leader who can’t possibly lead himself and will probably make the whole Order crumble on itself because of his misleading and recklessness and---

 

When the thread of his thought interrupts, Armitage Hux feels like he can think rationally again, finally.

He won’t be blinded by anger, or fear, or whatever emotion that could distract him from his mission.

Because he, unlike Ren, has a pourpose.

He’s not some kind of lost wanderer at the mercy of his own, implacable self.

He’s a General of the First Order and---

 

“A General must adapt, because it’s the only way to survive”, he says out loud, in front of Snoke’s filthy corpse still wrapped in burnt silk and gold.

Then he gets out on his still unsure legs, straightening his back further at every step.

He has a mission to accomplish...and Ren can be a good tool, if he’s smart enough not to get killed before he guides him on the same path too.

**Author's Note:**

> To Cherol, with all my heart. Merry Christmas, Sis <3


End file.
